The Nilla Life

[I've] Gotta Swim

2012-02-16T19:17:00.002-08:00

Sometimes life seems unnecessarily hard.

I am reminded, as I write that sentence, that I set a goal this year to work on being more humble. Why do I keep setting that goal?

Anyway, I have resumed blog-stalking a blog I hadn’t visited in a few years. She is a woman who is married to a 3rd cousin of mine, or something like that. And her blog is inspiring. The focus of her blog is adoption and infertility, because that is her (and her husband’s) trial in this life (or at least it’s one of the big ones). But I always come away from reading her posts with a sense of hope. And a few other good odds and ends, like the song that belongs to this blog post title.

So I am loving that song.

Because right now, I feel like I’m swimming in the dark. I feel like the current is trying to pull me away from my love, and I’m trying to keep my head above. Frankly, I feel like I’m under attack. And that’s probably because I am. I have never experienced such intense attack before in all my life. And while it’s exhausting and, at times, quite discouraging, it tells me something:

It's worth fighting for. And I know in whom I have trusted.

So go ahead, currents. Surround me for a while, dark. Try to tear down the dawn, tidal waves.

But…

“I haven’t come this far to fall off the Earth… [So] I swim for brighter days despite the absence of sun; choking on saltwater… I’m not giving in. I swim.”

According to Facebook...

2012-02-10T15:42:00.004-08:00

...I'm engaged. I'm just letting you know. Because it's not even something I wrote.

I woke up this morning, went to the Temple with Jeremy's mom and my mom. Went to Costco. Went to Fred Meyer. Finished up laundry. And while doing laundry, checked my FB (you know, because that's a high priority in life...). I had a ton (read: 10 -- which is a ton for me, since I don't do all that much on facebook) of updates. Imagine my shock when they were all on my new profile picture (and I use the term "new" loosely, since it was posted in December, but I managed to fly under the radar for quite some time) outing me as engaged. Hmmm... A most interesting development ;).

That's what I get for posting about making winter squash rolls!

Just thought I'd keep y'all in the loop. :).

Observations of the VaNILLA Variety

2012-02-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

When you make instant hot chocolate, the best part is that chocolatey layer that gathers on top that has some of the chocolate powder still not mixed in :). This is usually indicative that you used too much hot chocolate mix… But can you ever really have too much hot chocolate mix ;)?

Although it is nearly tasteless (to me, at least) once cooked in a chowder, a turnip is not a pleasant smelling thing. I used one for Monday Meals, and I was totally turned off by the smell of the raw turnip. I had my doubts about how this smelly vegetable(?) would influence the chowder and if my efforts for a tasty meal would be tainted by such a stinky thing… Happily they weren’t. But a raw turnip still stinks.

I think it may not be a good sign when your car starts surging while you drive down the road and your "check engine soon" light keeps coming on sooner and sooner. It's probably an even worse sign when you have a hard time starting your car in the morning and when you finally do get it started, it chug-a-lugs for a bit and you give it gas, but really... should you have to do that for a fuel injected vehicle? Actually, I'm seriously asking that question, because what do I know about fuel injection?

Miracles still happen. And I'm thankful I can witness so many of them in my life. I am thankful for my Heavenly Father who blesses me so abundantly.

It is useless to send a woman who has never had a baby out to help a woman who believes her water just broke... Yep, that was one of my grand adventures at church. One of the bishopric members told me one of the sisters in the ward was in the parking lot and had asked for him to send out a woman. I was the first person he saw who didn't appear busy, so he told me about it (I don't think he knew what was going on). So I went out there and she was leaning against her truck and said, "I think my water just broke." Holy. Cow. Like I know what that looks like! (Well, I do now... And who knew you could make that massive of a puddle!?!). So I told her not to be embarrassed (because she said she felt embarrassed) and I hurried in to get the Relief Society president (who thankfully has had 4 children of her own and would know what to do...). Add that to my knowledge about child bearing. I knew about water breaking, but I had no idea as to amounts. Now I've seen it. One good (maybe?) thing about not having babies until later in life is that I get to hear all the facts that nobody seems to share... I hear them from all my friends who have had babies. I'll go ahead and say that most of the stuff I've heard is pretty horrific sounding. But I still want to have babies one day :). I'm pretty positive the joys will far outweigh the grossness and trials.

My little tiny house may be the animal kingdom... So we have aforementioned rodent (who hasn't returned and I'm pretty sure was a squirrel -- the fattest squirrel I've ever seen). And this weekend, we discovered aphids galore on my garlic. We put the garlic outside in hopes it would freeze overnight and kill the aphids. It froze overnight (I know, because I had to scrape my car before leaving for work), so hopefully the aphids bit the dust. Also, I have had slugs manage to find their way in the front door (can you say drafty?). Any bets on the next wild creature to venture inside?

My car runs better after the "service engine soon" light comes on. Jeremy and I learned this when we drove my car to his parents' house. I still have AAA, though, as we expect that car to die any time. We're hoping to put 180K at least on it (it's at almost 178). Getting to 200 would be phenomenal, but that may be a little far-fetched, considering we know the coolant is leaking into the oil.

Listening to the conversations of children is awesome. Here's a conversation involving me, Emily, and Desiree after Sacrament meeting: Emily: "Time to see toys?!?!" (said with great enthusiasm and a smile on her face... Referring to nursery, as that is what she associates with nursery). Me: "No, it's time for Sunbeams! You're my big Sunbeam girl now!" (trying to be equally as enthused about Sunbeams, because she is 3 now, and she is no longer in nursery and therefore there are no longer toys and snacks). Emily looks down solemnly and covers her face with her hands. Desiree, soothingly to her sister: "It's okay Emily. It happened to me too." Hahaha.... Purely awesome. Maybe a "you had to be there moment." But it was it was awesome. Just the way Desiree so matter-of-factly stated it like it was this horrible event we all must pass through. Oh these girls are getting so big. And Emily does great in Sunbeams. She's just still adjusting to not going to nursery, but once she's in her class, she has a grand time.

Rodents' Revenge and Other Lameness

2012-01-27T14:55:00.002-08:00

Seriously, people, I’m starting to get a complex. It seems no matter where I live, I end up with a rodent encounter of some sort. It’s not a flattering thing.

So my current rodent remains unidentified. But I know he’s there, because I’ve heard him. And so has Jeremy. So there we were, sitting on the couch and enjoying some brief moments of “this was how my day was” when we heard a scratching coming from above. And not from the outside roof… Jeremy pounded on the wall and it stopped… For about 5 minutes. Then the scratching started again. Very clearly from within the attic space (which I’ve never ventured into – as the only access is from the top of my very small closet). So Jeremy pounded more forcefully on the wall and it stopped again. But he decided he was going in after the critter. So we pulled everything off the shelf of my closet, he got on his protective gear (thank goodness it is winter, so he rides to work in a thick jacket and gloves) and he started opening up the hole to go through. Oh man… Stuff started dropping everywhere… Insulation. Other random debris. An unspent bullet (for a .22 apparently). So we draped my clothes to prevent them from getting gunk on them any further and up Jeremy went. It was a pretty tight squeeze. And he didn’t find anything (well, except what we believe is a brick chimney, but there is no fireplace…). He did, however, emerge covered in dust and insulation debris. Ick. So the next step is poison. And I’m pretty sure I’ll probably end up smelling death and decay again as a result (I put a couple of handy dandy links there so you can read about my other death and decay and/or rodent encounters). Ugh. Thankfully, it was silent for the rest of the evening… Until about 3 a.m. this morning when I was woken from a very deep sleep by my rodent “friend.” After smacking the ceiling with my fist (and later learning I’d scraped skin off my knuckle in so doing…), I was ever so grateful that I remembered where I had put my ear plugs from when I was living at the other house. They came in handy. Ironically, one of the episodes of “Wings” that I watched before bed was the one where Helen can’t sleep because of the squirrels in her attic. Arguably one of the funniest episodes ever. Classic lines include Faye (in regards to the exterminators and the squirrels) asking, “They aren’t going to kill them are they?” And Roy saying, “No Faye, they’re going to glue little felt circles to their feet so you can’t hear them.” Or Brian’s declaration that s’mores should be called s’stupids. Yep, that show cracks me up. It’s been my end-of-the-night unwind for the last several weeks. Watching it makes me think of the past when it was actually running on tv and we would watch it. My dad loved that show. So I can still hear him laughing at the funny parts :).

In other lame news… I think I may have killed my camera. It was getting to where it was taking a really long time to take a picture, but I chocked it up to low battery. So I replaced the batteries one Sunday to take pictures of the nursery kids for their bulletin board and the screen went blank and it wouldn’t snap a picture… Thought maybe I put the batteries in backward… But it does fine on playback mode. So it’s not a battery problem. It’s a picture-taking problem. Ugh… This will require more looking into, because I really haven’t focused on it too much since then. But eventually I’m going to want to take some pictures! But it’s almost 7 years old, so I guess, if it’s gone, it’s gone. It had a good life and took lots of great pictures for me to cherish the memories :).

Not that I’m wanting to take any pictures of myself this month… I don’t know why, but I have seriously experienced break-out city this month. I suspect it’s something else I can attribute to wonky hormones (didn’t you say you like that word, Elka ;)?). Hopefully they’ll even out and my face will return to not-so-broken-out :).

I spend my day at work feeling like I want to go home and bake something yummy (and take it to work so I don’t eat it all by myself). But then I get home and feel patently unmotivated in that endeavor. And in other foodie news, it seems 3M may be just over the horizon. We were supposed to have our first attempt at a return this past Monday, but something came up and it got cancelled. So we try for this coming Monday. If not, I’ll go ahead and make what I was going to make anyway, which is Navy Bean Bacon Chowder and Chive Cheese Biscuits.

So there you have it. Those are my big woes at the moment ;). So life must not be so bad ;). And it’s not. Life is good. Mostly the sameold sameold. But when the sameold is happy stuff, who needs adventure?

Snopocalypse

2012-01-26T08:10:00.001-08:00

That’s what someone at church called our freak snow and ice storm of January 2012 :). And I think it’s a great blog post title! It was also a lovely 2 days of (non)work. And let me just say that last week’s work week was the most awesome ever! Because Monday was a holiday. Tuesday was work. Wednesday was an official snow day for which I got paid. And Thursday was a day I was not going to attempt skiing my car down my hill along with the other sledders (who were on sleds, not in cars). I got paid for that day too, but it required use of my floating holiday and a bit of annual leave. Eh, but it was worth it. Both for laziness’ sake and the sake of my safety. So yeah… They had predicted snow starting Tuesday afternoon, but by Tuesday at 10 p.m., there still wasn’t snow anywhere in sight. So I went to bed assuming it was all a lark. But by 5:00 the next morning, I learned it hadn’t been. Jeremy called and said, “Is it quiet where you are?” I replied in the affirmative, realizing that it actually was very quiet (like I mentioned before, the traffic is easily and often heard on my road) and he said it was quiet where he was, but that’s what happens when it snows… After we hung up, I decided to peek outside. Yep, it had snowed! By that point, about 4 or 5 inches. I didn’t have to worry about putting the trash out. I called the County offices to determine what my day would be looking like (though I was pretty sure I wasn’t going in anyway, because I’m not a winter-weather driver). They said they were on 2 hour delay. I was fine with that and rolled over and went back to sleep. But not for much. And actually, I might have gone back to sleep before looking outside and then called at 7 when my alarm went off. Either way… I was happy with a 2 hour delay and the knowledge I could call back at 8:30 and find out what was happening. But at that point, I didn’t go back to sleep… I laid there thinking about snow days. And how they would be so much more fun not spent alone… By 8 I had roused myself and was puttering around eating breakfast and watching an old family video (Christmas 1994) and I was watching the snow fall. I had ventured right outside my front door to sweep off my mat (I don’t have an overhang over my front door) and it was COLD! The little kids sledding said, “HI!” Ah to be young! I was happily snuggled up inside instead of sledding ;). So I went back to the couch, waiting for time to call to find out the verdict about work. Then a knock came at my door. I wasn’t expecting anyone, but figured it might be the mailman. It turns out it was Jeremy. They had closed his job down after telling them they had to be there and better find a way in. My house was closer, so he biked over in the lovely cold sleet/snow mix. And when I called in, I learned the County offices were officially closed. Yippy!! So we enjoyed some home-made hot chocolate and watched “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Hilarious movie. Thursday my job was open, but I didn’t go, because my hill was still a skating rink. I called my boss, and she said the roads at the County offices were horrible too, and even several people who live in the same city as the offices weren’t able to even get out of their driveways. Apparently the call was changed later in the day to opening at noon. But since I’d already decided to take the day, I never bothered to call back in and learn that. So it was another lazy day. I stayed in my pj’s for 2 straight days. By Friday at noon, the rain was falling and turning everything to slush, and I was tired of being inside and decided I would venture out and brave driving in the slush. Aside from one spinning-tires-and-going-nowhere experience, I survived. And learned something new through that spin-out joy. I only went to the grocery store and the Laundromat, but that was enough to get me out of the house for a couple hours.

By Saturday travel was no problem. Jeremy and I ate a light lunch at my house and then headed to Wal-Mart to do some shopping (had to replace my paper shredder), and then we went to the pizza place we hadn’t been to in a while (we didn’t enjoy the last pizza we had there, but this time we got the one we knew we liked! And it was delicious!). Sunday was church (and also a sleep-in morning for me…). It was kind of a chaotic day. Which I suspected would be the case based on how our 5 kiddos were acting in Sacrament meeting. Phew! We had some wiggle worms. And Primary was no different. But we survived. I had choir after church (I’m not enjoying it being after church anymore, because that puts me there until 5:15… Makes for a long day). Then I saw Jeremy for a bit after church. And then we begin another work week. And this one’s not of the super-cool variety ;). But such is life. I will say I thoroughly enjoyed my 1-day work week with a 5-day weekend. Ahhhh…

Isn't [He] Romantic

2012-01-13T14:35:00.002-08:00

Today (I actually typed the rest of this up yesterday when I was in a much better mood) is getting on my nerves. That's just FYI. Even blogger is annoying me. So if you wonder about how the text appears on here, it's because I was done with dealing with it.

:). You know it’s going to be good
when I start off a blog post with a smile!
I realize, based solely on the title
of this post (which is a doctored-up song title), that you may already be
gagging. But I can promise you a good laugh if you read on. And that is a
promise!

First I suppose I should tell you
about life in general before I get to life in specific ;). I never really said
much about the Christmas and New Years holidays. So I will briefly cover that
(and bear in mind my idea of brief may not match yours… ;)). Christmas was
busy. On the 23rd of December, I went to lunch with Lea and Morgan at the Olive
Garden and enjoyed some gab and a lot of food (it was, after all, the unlimited
soup, salad, and breadstick lunch… and this time it was pretty good!). Of
course, why I ate so much at 2:00 in the afternoon when I knew full well that
Jeremy and I had a dinner planned (that we was cooking), I do not know… But it
ended up working out fine, because Jeremy and I ate quite a bit later than we
planned, since it takes time to cut up potatoes, clean chicken, and cut
cauliflower into florets… We ate a ton of garlic in that meal ;). Plus, between
home teachers dropping of pies and my dad calling to discuss a few things, I
think it was about 8:00 before we actually ate! Which we did by the light of
the Christmas Tree while watching UP. Such a cute movie. And so fun to watch it
with Jeremy :). Christmas Eve was busy with me trying to do last-minute things
like mail Julie’s package, make pies, and make 2 fruit salads. But Jeremy’s a
big help, and he actually made both fruit salads and the cold pumpkin pie
(something new I tried, and it was a weird conglomeration of ingredients that
made it seem questionable – and super-fatty, but neither of us actually tried a
piece, so who knows how it was…). We headed to his mom’s parents’ house for
Christmas Eve dinner. So I met a lot of his family, and all his brothers were
there, so his whole family almost was there, so that was pretty cool. It was a
late night – we didn’t get back to my house until midnight. And we were tired.
So we said our good-byes and I got my shower and went to bed!

Christmas was also kind of busy. We
attended church together in my ward, and I sung 4 songs with the choir. One of
those included me doing a descant, but apparently I didn’t sing very loud (too
afraid of making a mistake!) and I didn’t use the microphone very close to me
(again, too afraid of hitting a wrong note and broadcasting that loud and
clear!), so I shouldn’t have been so nervous… but I was! It really was nice,
though, to sit with Jeremy during church. I say that every time, but it’s
because it’s true. After church, we changed clothes and headed to his parents’
house and exchanged gifts there and saw one of his brothers and his family. Then
we headed back to do Christmas with my family that evening. That was a lot of
people in a small house! But it was good. The food was plentiful (my mom opted
for prime rib this year instead of turkey and ham). The fruit salad that Jeremy
and I took for Thanksgiving in Alabama has become our staple “potluck” dish,
and it seems to be a hit no matter how we make it or where we take it. So yay!
It’s a keeper! After opening presents, we went back to my house and relaxed for
a while, just the two of us. Oh, and I should mention (for those of you who
didn’t see it on facebook) that I did get a ring for Christmas. Hahaha… A key
ring ;). Both Jeremy and I had had plenty of people suggesting or commenting on
me getting a ring for Christmas. So Jeremy made it so. Hahaha… I do so love his
sense of humor ;).

Jeremy had the whole week between
Christmas and New Year’s off. So we had the lovely opportunity of seeing each
other every day that week (except the one where he was out of town visiting
family) and spending some wonderful time together. He finally watched The
Goonies with me, and commented that he must not have watched it at the right
time in his life for it to grow on him the way it has me and that uber-excited
Goonies fan from Applebee’s. Our New Years Eve was quiet. He fixed my side-view
mirror while I took down Christmas decorations. Then he took the Christmas tree
to be recycled. We heard and saw some fireworks from my back window, but other
than that just enjoyed each other’s company and worked on a few piddly things
around my house (like hanging a few more pictures :)). New Years Day was church
and it was a hectic day indeed! My ward switched to afternoon time while
Jeremy’s now meets at 9:00. Plus several people were out, so it made for a busy
busy Primary! (And actually, this past Sunday was even more hectic, because of
all the new changes: new classes, new teachers, etc… plus I was teaching the
lesson about choice and consequences. Phew! Try to get a bunch of 3 year olds
who are used to playing with toys at about that time to pay attention! Hahaa… I
was pretty sweaty by the end of that lesson!). Emily is a brand new Sunbeam,
and that was an adventure for sure! That was a side-note ;). I spent Sunday
evening with Jeremy, and let me just say that it is a lovely thing to begin
2012 together. Monday was a day off work for both of us, because the holiday
was on Sunday. So nice to have the extra day to spend together. We made another
fruit salad, and then headed out to his brother’s mother-in-law’s for a Rummikub
tournament! So fun! I told Julie I was playing that, and her response was that
I am not allowed to play that game with anyone but her. So I told her Jeremy
and I will have to plan a special game-playing trip to Alabama where she and
Jon and Jeremy and I can play Mexican Train and Rummikub. Personally, I think
we should do that now!

Tuesday brought a return to work for both me and Jeremy. Blah. I need a get-rich-quick scheme so we can just spendour days together ;). Haha… Okay, so I’m kidding. That’s called retirement. And apparently you have to work before you retire. Anyway… Work was work for me and
training for Jeremy. And then by Thursday, Jeremy was winging his way on a work
trip and we had to endure 5 whole days of not seeing each other! The horror, the
horror!!! Hahaha… Seriously, though. It wasn’t horrible, and actually I got a
lot of stuff accomplished (including getting 2 food storage buckets for free!).
I shredded a bazillion papers (and I think I broke my paper shredder, possibly
beyond reasonable repair). I had tax papers from 1999. It was time for those to
go! I organized some files, consolidated some stuff… Little by little
everything is getting put away in an organized fashion. So lots of good stuff
got accomplished. But, you know when you’re in love, 5 days can seem like
forever! Hahaha… But I had the most special things to help get through those 5
days of not only not seeing each other, but not even being able to talk to each
other 4 of those days (due to where he was… no cell phone reception). See,
Jeremy managed to hide a whole bunch of little tiny strips of post-it-notes
with happy loving thoughts written on them all around my house. And I would
randomly find them. And it was way way cool and so sweet and special. And I’m
smiling like the biggest dork right now. And I’m not going to tell you what
they said or where all he hid them. But I will tell you one. Because I promised
you a good hearty laugh. And this will also help you see that the places he put
these sticky notes really were random. And sometimes hilarious! So one night I
was getting ready for bed, and as part of my routine, I make sure to use the
bathroom (#1, just for clarifying…). I mean, I find it lame to get woken up in
the middle of the night in order to go tinkle… (Although I think chocolate milk
might be a diuretic for me). Anyway, so after I was done, I stood up (my
bathroom is teeny tiny, so the sink is literally right in front of me…) and
proceeded to wash my hands and brush my teeth and take out my contacts before
flushing the toilet. So when I did turn around to flush the toilet, I noticed
this bright yellow color and thought, “What is that!?!” And then I realized
what it was… A note! So at some point, Jeremy had shoved a note between the
layers of an unused roll of toilet paper. And I was completely oblivious to
said note until the TP in the potty had soaked through and revealed it (Jeremy
blames my not seeing it on my scrunching of the toilet paper). And yes, for
your information, I did reach in and fish it out. And the most hilarious part
is that it said, “Having fun? Haha… Potty humor.” Well, and it said “I love
you” too… I laughed and smiled so much! (And washed my hands again). And so the
next morning (the last one before we wouldn’t even have cell phone contact), I
told him about finding this note. He laughed so hard! Classic. The funniest
part to him was what that note said… since I had to fish it out of the toilet
and all… Having fun indeed!

Anyway, so yeah, it was really sweet and quite
romantic to find little notes in random places reminding me that he loves me.
And the coolest part was that I found a note every day except Saturday.
And so Jeremy is back now, and we
had a lovely Tuesday evening catching each other up on the days and the events
while we were apart. And life otherwise is mostly just the same old stuff. And
it’s going to be a 4-day weekend for me, so I’m looking forward to that… Even
more so if Jeremy gets a 3-day weekend :).

Goal Setting Time

2012-01-05T19:02:00.001-08:00

Well, it’s that time of year. The beginning of a new one. Time to examine how I did as far as accomplishing last year’s goals and time to set new ones. I have given a little bit of thought to my goals for 2012. But it’s time to actually really give it some thought as I sit here and meander through my thoughts of yore (a.k.a. yesterday ;)) and look to thoughts of tomorrow.

In 2011, I had hoped to:

Attend the Temple Monthly. Though I did not get 100% on this goal, I did get close. I made it 10 out of 12. There were times this was a big sacrifice to make – like the time my mom couldn’t go at the last minute, so I took my car. My car doesn’t run so well (as you may well recall). I mean, it’s running. But it has issues. I don’t usually (read: I don’t ever) take it on treks to Seattle… But Jeremy had just replaced the radiator, so I felt a bit more confident in it. And one nice thing that came from that trip was the opportunity to go with Jeremy’s mom and get to know her better and share that time and experience together. Though I didn’t officially meet this goal 100%, it will not be on my 2012 goals. And the reason is because I have achieved what I needed to achieve, and that was a change of heart. I’ve made Temple attendance a bigger priority in my life, and that’s the purpose of goals… at least for me. Or at least, it’s one purpose. I feel confident that I will continue making it a priority in 2012 whether it’s one of my official self-improvement goals or not.

Read the scriptures 30 minutes a day. This you will also not find on my 2012 goal list. Again, not because I am perfect at it. But because I have seen a change in myself. I didn’t achieve what I would call 100% on this goal either. But again, I have seen the scriptures become a more important part of my life. I have experienced more of those beautiful moments during scripture study where I have an impression about something important or learn something I can apply to my life from what I read. These are beautiful things to me, they were things I wanted to experience. And I have. And because I have, I want to continue it. It’s funny how that works… I think that’s some of what a change of heart is: you recognize the good fruits that come from good things, and in wanting those good fruits, you start to desire to do the good things. And so it is for me. I am not perfect – and sometimes my scripture reading is far less than 30 minutes and may consist of reading through one Conference talk from the most recent Conference. And maybe it’s one I’ve read through twice before (but I return to it because I love it). But the goal is to be spiritually fed through scripture reading – whether ancient or modern-day scripture – and I have felt that happen in my life, and I am thankful.

Continue building my savings account. I have continued to do this, and I will take it off my goal list for 2012. Not because I’m going to stop doing it, but because it’s become almost automatic. I remain amazed that I have been able to save what I’ve wanted to save and yet meet all my obligations. I wish I could explain what I feel about this, but I lack words. Basically, I have learned (or reaffirmed) two things: 1 – Paying tithing really does result in blessings being poured out abundantly. The promise is in Malachi. The promise is true. Money didn’t fall from the sky. But I had what I needed – and then some. 2 – Following the counsel of the Prophet and apostles, after receiving your own witness it is good, also brings forth blessings. We have been counseled to get out of debt and stay out of debt. To not be a prisoner to anyone through financial obligations. Sure, there are certain big-ticket items that require debt. A home mortgage is what most readily comes to mind. But so few material things are really debt-worthy, and I am thankful I have been able to maintain a desire to be debt-free more than I have had a desire for a new car or a big TV or whatever. The other counsel has been to save money away for the rainy days. I have continued to do so. Initially it was hard to put that little bit aside, because I wasn’t making very much. I’m still not. But I have seen the miracle of being able to do it, because I want to do what’s right. I want to be self-reliant as much as I possibly can. And I know Heavenly Father wants that for me also, so He will help me, as long as I do my part. I have seen it. So I know it’s true.

See somewhere new. Okay, so I didn’t do this. But does it count if I took someone else to see some place new ;)? Haha… And actually, while I’m sitting here thinking about it, I did see somewhere new this year. I went to Whidby Island (I think that’s how it’s spelled). I think I don’t always think of things like that because it’s not as exotic as Paris or Egypt or the Oregon Coast (haha ;)). But it was someplace I’d never been, so I think it counts :). Which means I can say I did this after all! And with these thoughts in mind, I think I will remove this from my goals also, because it seems a little too vague. I could go to upper-Shelton and say I’ve seen somewhere new. But that’s not really what I intend, so I think this goal is kinda dorky, now that I think of it :).

Complete one item on my bucket list. I didn’t do this, but that’s okay. I will add it on for next year. And by golly! It’s going to happen one of these years ;). I have a variety of things on there, you know. And there’s a good chance I could make up for the lean years by having a fat year and doing 3 of them in one year! You never can tell with life. It’s always an exciting adventure :).

72-Hour Kit. Um… Still no. Arg. But I think I had to get some other things prioritized ahead of this so that I could get to this point. See the remainder of my commentary in my goals for 2012.

3-month supply food storage. Well, officially I didn’t do so well on this. But it’s still important to me, which is why you will see it listed under the 2012 goals with a few tweaks.

Become organized and stay that way. Well, I am working on this. I’m not there. Not even close. But I’m working on it. I think I shredded an entire trash bag full of personal documents that just needed to go! I did that this past week. As I have gotten more and more settled into my new home (yeah, you’d think I’d be completely settled, but I’m not quite there…), I have improved in how organized I can be. I have been de-cluttering by getting rid of things I really don’t need (like novels I’ll never read again – or may never read in the first place). I’m not saying I don’t want to have stuff, but I am realizing that the more you have the more you have to organize. So I don’t need to have the cross-stitch books that I’ll never use – and I know I’ll never use, because I don’t see myself cross-stitching a bunch of bass or catfish. (I will add a disclaimer: I still am not ready to part with any kitchen stuff :)).

Lose 8 more pounds. I did this and then some. When I went for my very exciting female appointment in November, I discovered I’d lost 25 pounds from the year before. And when I’d weighed in 2010, I was already about 6 pounds down from where I’d started. Which means I lost a total of 31 pounds from 2010 to 2012. I’m not sure where I am today, since I don’t have a scale here. I know I’m under my goal weight, but I also know I’ve eaten a lot of pumpkin pie and cookies, and a few spoonfuls of ruined fudge and probably a handful of other not-so-waistline-friendly foods ;). But I’m not too worried about it.

Expand my garden. I did this. I grew a lot more stuff. I didn’t tend to it as much this year. There were several reasons for this. One large reason was time. My time was focused elsewhere, and that’s okay. I enjoyed my garden; I enjoyed the vegetables from it. I love to garden, but I don’t know if I will this year, simply because I don’t know if it’s realistic. If I do, it will be a few pots outside with maybe a tomato plant and I don’t know what else you can grow well in a pot. I don’t have much of a yard at my house, and I simply don’t see me going to my grandmother’s house every day or even every weekend to tend it. But I do know I will garden again one day, and I know I will enjoy it :).

Write in my journal weekly. I mostly did this. It got a little less frequent around October and November and December. But I still wrote a lot more than last year or the year before that. And I’m thankful. I know that it will be a treasure down the road. I have often spoken of how I appreciate now my high school journals (even though they are full of silly crushes and mundane details like that more than anything of real depth). But after I moved in to my own house, I unpacked my journal from Tuscaloosa. And I was so grateful for it. And wish I’d have written more. I had forgotten some very important things that happened in Tuscaloosa. Some huge blessings; some moments when I really saw the hand of the Lord in my day-to-day. I am – and will forever be – so grateful that I wrote what I wrote, even if it wasn’t more. Going back and reading that journal was so strengthening to me. And a further witness of the importance of writing in a journal. And so I’m grateful for what I’ve written this year. I can definitely say it’s run the gamut of emotions. It is a good representation of my life this year. And there’s even a smattering of impressions and thoughts that I know will be a blessing for me to read about in the future and remember.

Write 30 minutes a day. Yeah, I sort of quit doing this sometime around April. I never got back to it. Maybe one day. For now it’s not that big a deal. Although it would help me with one of those bucket list items ;).

Spend more time reading and less time online. Well, I can say I have been online less in the last few months. Because I didn’t have the option, what with not being willing to have that bill at this point ;). But I haven’t done a whole heap of reading, that’s for sure! I had planned to read 30 books this year, but I only got halfway to my goal. But that’s okay. I was enjoying the company of a certain special someone… and it was worth it ;).

In 2012 I hope to:

Memorize about 52 Scripture Masteries. That’s a rough estimate, and I hesitate to put a numerical value there, because that makes it harder to be accountable to when some of those are entire pages long (and therefore it will not get memorized in only one week). Anyway, scripture masteries are select scriptures from each of the books of scripture we have (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price). The 10 Commandments are a scripture mastery in the Old Testament. And they are multiple verses, so you can see what I mean about the length of some of them. Anyway, Jeremy and I talked about wanting to memorize them, and actually we are setting this as a couple goal for the year also. But I know I want to add it to my personal goals to help me be more accountable to it :).

Simplify. I definitely realized, when shopping at 6:30 in the morning on December 23^rd, and feeling quite Grinch-like, that I need to simplify life a bit. Last year I had shopped throughout the year for Christmas, and it wasn’t so hectic. This year I didn’t do so well, and my attitude was a lot more yuck when I was down to the wire. So not the Christmas spirit. And I love to give gifts. It’s a way I show love. But I think, as the number of people I want to give gifts to continues to grow in size, my choice of gifts needs to change as well. Gifts can be expensive, and I need to be a wise steward over my money. I think this year I will be turning to making gifts more than buying them. Does this sound less simple to some? Perhaps. But it gives me an opportunity to work on it through the year and actually put even more love and thought into the gift. I miss making cross-stitch ornaments. And one of the things I have enjoyed doing every year since I moved here is making goodies and giving them away. And another gift I really enjoyed giving this year was the pepper jelly I made. There was just something extra-enjoyable in the home-made gifts, and I think I want to do that in 2012 instead of going to the store at the crack of dawn (or before…) and being sour about it. Blah. And this is only one example of my need to simply my life. It’s the main one I have thought of so far, but I am sure there are other ways. And so the goal is to determine them and do them :).

Visiting Teaching. So at church, ideally, each sister in the Ward is assigned another sister in the Ward as her “companion” and then they get a list of other sisters in the Ward to visit each month. The goal is to fellowship, teach, lift, help, etc. And let me go ahead and admit here that I’m pretty lousy at it. Like. Really. Lousy. I haven’t always been lousy, but that’s because I’ve had really awesome Visiting Teaching companions in the past (read: Jeni) who would make the appointments and all I had to do was tag along. So I guess I was, in fact, sort of lousy. But I didn’t feel quite as lousy, because I was actually doing something. I’m not so great at being the one to initiate things and coordinate schedules and call the sisters and see if we can come by and visit. Lame of me, I know. And so I need to do better. My official goal is to do face-to-face visits 4 times this year, if possible. I say “if possible” because the truth is there are others involved. If someone says, “Yeah, this isn’t a good time for me, could you send a letter instead?” then I can’t really twist their arm, ya know? But I need to put forth my efforts better than I have. And l will admit I am hesitant to put this up here as a goal, because I know it means I will have to be accountable to it. But I also know I have been richly blessed, and this is something I believe Heavenly Father wants me to do. It is His way of helping others feel loved and supported. And I need to be more willing to do those things. And as I do, I think I will gain a testimony of Visiting Teaching the way Jeni has (which is probably why she was undaunted in her scheduling appointments and doing the work… she’d seen it bless the life of at least one person, and she knew). Thank you Jeni, for being an example to me :).

Eat more vegetables. Okay, I’m mostly a terrible vegetable-eater. Which is part of why Monday Meals was so awesome… we tried new recipes with vegetables that are ordinarily thought of as detestable (like Brussels sprouts and asparagus). Granted, those vegetables were doctored up with everything unhealthy under the sun (like cheese, creamy soups, and sour cream…). But I liked my vegetables during Monday Meals ;). But all kidding aside, I do know I need to make vegetables a bigger part of my diet. When I’m cooking an actual meal, for dinner, it’s easy for me to make sure it’s well-rounded and includes veggies. And there are even some vegetarian dishes I love (like the garlic vegetable soup). But on a daily basis, I do not make eating vegetables a priority. I have gotten better about having more fruit in my house (usually bananas because they are easy, and lately I’ve developed a love for those little cutie organs – or mandarins, apparently ;)). I like easy, which is probably why these two fruits are playing a large part in my fruit diet lately. But veggies… I just don’t think to snack on veggies. And I should. Even if I require some ranch dressing to help dress them up a bit and make them more appealing :). I’m really good at eating pickles… does that count? Anyway, I am not sure how I am going to implement this, exactly, but that’s sort of what setting a goal is for me… I decide on something I feel I need to do better, and then I work to find a way to do it. Even if it takes me all year ;). So I’ll let you know what I come up with.

Humility. So I had this as a goal in 2010. I felt I didn’t achieve it. I didn’t put it on the list for 2011. Mostly because I was probably pretty moody about my absolute failure (or seeming failure) and didn’t really want to go there again. But I’ve gained perspective. And, honestly, I am not sure how one measures humility in oneself anyway. But I want to at least work on it, whether or not I can say I achieved it by the end of the year. (Well, I don’t think I will achieve it in this life anyway, so just nix that ridiculous statement…). I have come to realize some interesting things about humility and pride. I remember when I set this goal in 2010, my cousin Elka told me to be careful asking for that. Hahaha… So true Elka, so true. Because the things that happen to allow you to choose humility are generally not the most fun things in the world. But let me go ahead and say that, even though I didn’t set that as a goal in 2011, I still had ample opportunity come my way to exercise humility. Do I think I did a good job? I don’t know. But I hope I did at least some of the time. And I have seen where the opportunities have been (in retrospect, and with a little bit of pondering and probably some encouraging impressions from the Spirit). And I don’t think I’ve been an all-out failure. But I think one way I can improve is by realizing something is an opportunity to be humble during the event rather than afterward. Haha… I’m also learning that, sometimes, humility doesn’t have to be in the big things (like me saying, “Okay so I moved across an entire country and did my best to do my best – so what gives!?!” – when I don’t get a good job or meet my awesome future husband in the first 2.5 years of being in Washington). Yep, I probably was lame at humility in that scenario. Humility is trusting the Lord – and trusting His timing. And not asking “what gives!?!” But it’s also in the small, seemingly unimportant things. Like saying, “Yeah, those books made me laugh, but it’s time for me to stop excusing them as my guilty pleasure because they do have quite a bit of inappropriate stuff in them, and I don’t need them to be happy or be better.” So anyway, I don’t know how I will measure this, but I do want to be willing to at least try to be more humble. In the big things and the small things. I want to say, “Thy will be done” and mean it. Because it’s always what’s best anyway.

Bucket List item. I didn’t achieve this last year, so I would like to this year. The sad thing is that there are plenty of things I can at least work toward without it costing money. Like learning sign language. Okay, maybe that’s not plenty (I don’t have the list handy at the moment, and I don’t have internet here at home, so I’m going on memory for most of this stuff…). So this year I will try again. But like I said when I acknowledged that I didn’t complete this goal for 2011: life is life. And I may very well cross off several things in one year! So I am not too worried about it. I’d just like to have it as a goal :).

Three-month supply food storage and hygiene necessities. Well, 3 months in most things. Some things may be 2 months. Why not more? Well, because my little tiny house isn’t conducive to more. But we will store what we can and I will learn how to circulate it and replace it. It will be good practice for one day when we have the room we need and we can have a year’s supply. I will be able to rotate and get a good feel for how much I will need of things. I’m pretty excited about this, because I actually have a starting point.

72-Hour Kits. I’m feeling like this might actually be the year! Perhaps because I’m feeling warm and fuzzy as I sit here on my couch in my pj’s (church is at 1:00 this year for my Ward), and I’m feeling hopeful and excited for all I can do in 2012. And possibly because I have a pretty darn good support system in things like this (I like to call him Jeremy ;)).

Well, that’s about all I’ve come up with to this point. Not as many as in the past, but then, I am trying to simplify ;). So Happy New Year all! And to let you smile just a little bit more… Here’s a picture of me and Jeremy and my Christmas tree on the last day of 2011, right before we took it down and recycled it :). Awwww…

Back To Life... Back To Reality

2011-12-28T18:03:00.011-08:00

Aaaahhh!!! My blogging frequency is the pits! Especially considering I have so many fun and happy things to report :)! My apologies blogosphere buddies.

This is a song title post, by the way. Because after a lovely vacation (and I do mean lovely), I was thinking this song in my head. And dreading it. Blah. Because our Alabama adventure was absolutely astonishingly awesome. I know you like all the a’s :). And I, frankly, was not looking forward to a return to reality. (I wasn’t the only one feeling that way, either). But, though we did return to reality, it hasn’t been a bad return at all ;). It’s actually been quite lovely back here too.

And now for the re-cap. With pictures, of course ;).

I left off in the middle of November in my last blog post. But that is about right. The only thing noteworthy (in my opinion) that happened that following week was that on Wednesday night, Jeremy and I watched A B.C. Thanksgiving on my laptop. Love that cartoon! “And that’s a turkey?” “Well, it ain’t Barbara Streisand…” and “We must give thanks to the Great Provider.” “That ain’t you is it?” Haha… I’ve been watching that cartoon for ages and ages. In fact, the copy I have available to myself is the one I transferred from Betamax to DVD a few years back. So it’s my DVD with tracking issues… Hahaha. I think it’s funny that even Jeremy has been quoting a few lines from this gem of a cartoon ever since ;). Yep, I definitely like the cartoon. And I like making it part of my Thanksgiving tradition :). Oh, and did I mention I don’t have a tv, so Jeremy rigged my laptop so that I can hear the volume out of my old stereo my parents got me for Christmas around 1994ish? (My laptop speakers are pretty lousy as far as playing DVDs goes…). Yep, he’s pretty handy to have around. Did I mention that before ;)?

But I digress… I’m supposed to be filling you in on our Alabama trip!

So on Thursday, the day before vacation, I left work a little early. Not for the most exciting of reasons, of course. I had that fun little female doctor visit. Yippy skippy. (In case you couldn’t tell, that’s dripping with sarcasm…) But once done with that fun experience, I was able to get on with my day of tasks in preparation for leaving for a week! So laundry, cleaning, paying rent early (so it wasn’t late), packing, my mom and Sue stopped by my place so Sue could get the grand tour – now that most things are put away and in their place… Then Jeremy stopped by for a while and helped me finish off my list of tasks… Then I had to go pick Christina up from work and take her home. And I was home and in bed by about 10:30, since Jeremy would be there at 4:15 the following morning.

And he was. I slept mostly well, even though I did wake up a couple times in the night. But that’s just to be expected. Anticipation and all that :). So we packed up his car and drove to my mom’s. Unpacked his car and parked it in the driveway. My mom took us to the ferry terminal where we caught the 4:50 ferry. That was one packed ferry! I guess all the Seattle workers head in on that one! I would not enjoy that every day! So we made it to Seattle and then walked to the light rail. This is a train that will take you right to the airport. For cheap. Our total cost to get to the airport was $5.50 plus whatever was used in gas and wear and tear on my mom’s car. Since anytime I take the airporter, it usually costs $36 round-trip just for me, this was quite a nice price tag! So we went through security at SeaTac and they now force everyone to go through those full-body scan things. Slows down the process a lot. Especially when they have two lines going through one scanner. But we had plenty of time, so though it was annoying, it didn’t impact our flight. And you know how I like to document things… So here was our first picture of the trip… Don’t we look lovely for having been up since 4 in the morning (or earlier…)?So we had a brief layover in Denver. There are a lot of birds in the Denver airport. The flight from Seattle to Denver went by fast enough. We played Phase 10 and Jeremy was whoopin’ me, but then we had to land. So he never officially “won” that game ;). On the flight to Atlanta, we mostly worked on snoozing. And we were mostly successful, even though we won’t call it restful sleep. We landed in Atlanta at a little after 6 p.m. local time. Julie and Alysha were waiting for us in the airport – and we spotted them before they spotted us! So it was off to the van (or truck) and then a lovely driving adventure to get out of Atlanta before we stopped somewhere to eat. So where did we opt to go? I thought Jeremy needed a true-blue Deep South experience. The two choices I thought of were Cracker Barrel and Golden Corral. Fortunately for us, both of these restaurants were pretty much at every exit! That’s the South… Golden Corral won out, because Julie and Alysha said they hadn’t been there in a long while. Plus it’s all you can eat and already prepared for the eating. And Jeremy and I were pretty hungry by this point. I ate fried okra (which I have done so before when I lived in Alabama) and I actually really liked it this time! Jeremy tried it too, but I don’t know what he thought of it. We had a pretty intense conversation about Brussels sprouts. Haha… And what they look like. And after filling our stomachs full of food, we piled back into the van and continued the drive to Julie’s. And yeah, we were exhausted. So was Julie. Her “eyes were blurry” a lot. Hahaha. But we survived and made it to their house. Where we said our good-nights (after seeing Jon and doing a brief introduction) and I got my shower and went to bed! I started the next morning pretty early and met Callen, Julie’s little man. He saw me go into the room and sit on the floor and he went crawling right over to me and crawled in my lap. And then he looked confused. I’m pretty sure he thought I was either Julie or Alysha because of the long dark hair. After he realized I wasn’t, he turned and looked at Jon and you could tell he was a little curious about that situation. Jeremy, Julie, and I got dressed and ready to head to April’s house. April lives only about 10 minutes from Juile! How crazy is that!?! It was awesome to be able to do that, even though it was such a brief visit. April cooked breakfast for all of us and we got to meet Bennett. He and Callen are only a few days apart. It was wonderful to get the chance to see April, Greg, Courtney, and Bennett, even though it was only for about an hour. We did take a group picture, but Julie said I wasn’t allowed to post it. Haha… So instead I am posting the one of just me and April :).

We went back to Julie’s and by this point Shayla was up. She has really grown up and gotten so interactive! And not very shy at all! She loves taking pictures. And she loved playing with Jeremy, who stuffed a purple boa into his back belt loop as a tail and ran around with her chasing him. She thought that was the most fun game ever. Julie took a nap and I mostly just relaxed. By around noon, Julie, Alysha, Jeremy, and I headed to Dothan. We talked while we drove. About a lot of various topics. It was a good drive. So much fun to go through Brundidge again, the city with the horrible speed limit. Haha… Julie dropped us off at Lowe’s, since my dad was working. So Jeremy met my dad, who still had an hour left of work, so Jeremy and I walked around Lowe’s looking at appliances and kitchen stuff and discussing our likes and dislikes. It was actually a lovely little hour we spent ;). When my dad got off work, we drove to Publix to pick up a few groceries to get us to Monday. Then we went home and I gave Jeremy the grand tour of my dad’s house and then got a shower while my dad made dinner. We enjoyed sitting and visiting at the dinner table. Actually, it was quite a lovely night. We turned in around 10, because we had church the next morning, and Jeremy and I were still very tired. We really hadn’t gotten much sleep to this point, so it was good to finally turn in early and get a good night’s sleep.

And it was absolutely lovely to wake up and see Jeremy’s smiling face in the doorway to the room where I slept – seeing if I was awake yet and ready for morning prayer. Oh so happy :)! So we had prayer and ate breakfast and headed to church. My dad gave us full use of the PT Cruiser while we were there. Church was at 9:00 and we got there just as Relief Society/Priesthood were starting. So Jeremy and I split up and went to our various classes for the first hour. Then we got to sit next to each other during Gospel Doctrine. I know it’s so gushy and dorky to be all giddy about these things. But even now, a month later, it still makes me feel that way :). And after Sunday School we went to Sacrament meeting and then I got to take a few minutes to say hi to Becky and Brian. Then Jeremy and I headed home. We ate some lunch and just relaxed and talked until my dad got home for lunch. Then we sat and visited with him while he ate his lunch. He headed back to work, so Jeremy and I just relaxed some more and talked. It was a very relaxing day, actually. A nice day. We started cooking dinner around 5:00 in preparation for my dad getting home from work. We made arroz y guandu (rice with some peas that we used to eat in Panama, but they sell them in the grocery store – Goya brand). I think I made chicken to go along with. Nothing fancy. Just sprinkled with garlic and pepper. So we enjoyed another nice meal together, and then, after showers, Jeremy and I did scripture reading and talking some more. We had our nightly prayer and then went to bed. Oh, and because I like to document our trip – even the stuff where we aren’t actually doing anything… here’s a picture of me and Jeremy in the kitchen on Sunday night as we are making dinner :).

Monday brought another early-ish morning. My dad had to work again, and Jeremy and I had a 9:30 appointment with the fabulous Stacy at the Dothan Botanical Gardens (where I’d never been before…). So we ate breakfast and headed out – after getting all spiffied up (well, as much as Jeremy and I “spiffy”) of course ;). We arrived just a few short minutes behind Stacy and her sweet Ammon boy, who patiently endured a photo-shoot in the hot, humid, gnat-infested weather (that was ridiculously draped about us like a wet blanket that day… Seriously 80 degrees in mid-November. That’s hideous). And following are some lovely samples of Stacy’s wonderful talent. Oh how I love love love these pictures. I love the happiness and fun that is captured. And the love :). Yep, there I go feeling all giddy again ;). (I know I gave you a little taste of these pictures, but wait until you see more… Scroll away!).
The following photos courtesy of stacy thomas | photography.

This is one of my most favorites :). I love that face -- that smile -- those eyes! :)

While at the Botanical Gardens (where we fought off a cloud of gnats… did I mention that already?), Jeremy also got to look at and feel red clay (well, that explains all the brick houses in the South!) and there was even a random stem of cotton. Which was pretty cool, because it gave Jeremy the opportunity to see and feel cotton that was just grown. And I remember the first time I ever saw cotton on the plant – it was pretty cool to me. We spent maybe an hour taking pictures. We didn’t want it to be a long and laborious event. Just a simple, quick photo shoot to appease my love of pictures and my desire to document life ;). And how sweet that Jeremy humored me and endured ;). We headed back to my dad’s house to deal with laundry and also get the shopping list for Wal-Mart. But we didn’t head out right away. Instead we lazied around a while longer. All this lazying around stuff was pretty awesome. I’m telling you… this going to work every day and being stuck at a job is over-rated! (Too bad that’s how you get the money for vacations… ;)). We eventually decided to head to Troy Dothan to see Donna. We had definitely wanted to see each other (me and Donna), so though it was only for lunch, we made the most of it. And we went to one of the foodie places on my “must go there in Alabama” list: O’Charley’s. I craved that potato soup. And so why, once I got there, I chose to order half a sandwich and a cup of the wonderful soup, I will never understand. Donna was the smartest of the three of us and ordered a full bowl of it, because I’d raved about how delicious it was. Jeremy went with the soup of the day, which was 3 Cheese and Broccoli. We don’t talk about that much, since it’s a sore point for him ;). He took a taste of my soup and was highly disappointed in his choice of soup. Which he stated. And Donna said, “Well, you should have listened to her. I did.” Haha. Oh Donna. How you make me laugh. And yeah, I was sorely disappointed in the lame-o sandwich. I should have gotten a huge bowl of the addictive cheese-with-potatoes-floating-around-in-it-soup instead of a small cup. Sigh. My gift card from Julie for my birthday came very much in handy ;). We went back to Troy, said goodbye to Donna, and then I tried to go visit my former Dean there, but he wasn’t in. We stopped by to say hi to Jo Ann in the College of Arts & Sciences, and then swung relaxedly (I’m making up words…) on one of the bench swings on campus. Until we started experiencing more gnats and mosquitoes. Then it was time to go. Oh! But let’s not forget the picture of me and Donna!

Plus, we had to go to Wal-Mart and it was around 4:00 by this time. I know. I think we may have been insane. Wal-Mart at 4:00 p.m. the Monday before Thanksgiving? Ugh. And Super-Wal-Mart at that. Which is pretty much your only choice in Dothan. I’m sure Jeremy was thrilled with this experience. We divided and conquered and found out Wal-Mart was sold out of strawberries, so we had to come up with alternative fruits for the fruit salad we were going to take to Thanksgiving. And we did. Then we headed home to my dad’s and I started working on the arroz con pollo. Which I probably should have saved for another day, because that takes time. And we still had laundry to do, and then I was going to rush off to Target just to have the opportunity to see a bit more of Stacy and a quick visit with Tammy, since they were headed on their own vacation the following day. So Jeremy and my dad hung out and ate dinner while I went to Target. Stacy, Tammy, and I lolly-gagged and talked in the aisles while Stacy’s husband ever-so-patiently waited for his wife to visit and entertained their little boy. Much appreciated, Brian. Thank you! By 9:15 or so I was back at my dad’s, eating dinner. And before long it was time to turn in for the night. But here is a picture from the Target rendezvous ;).

Tuesday was a different type of day. My dad was off work, so Jeremy was planning to stay home and help my dad while I went off to visit with my friends. I didn’t leave first thing in the morning, but stayed to help rake leaves. Holy cow. I forgot how fun that is. (That’s sarcastic for me, but it wouldn’t be for Jeremy… he likes that kind of stuff). I got a blister. And I am not so good at big piles :). But we got a significant portion of the yard raked before I headed to Baskin Robbins for some mint chocolate chip ice cream to take to HLML to surprise Kristin with! And so I did! So much fun! She and I sat and gabbed for an hour until she had to leave. Here’s a picture of the two of us.

And then I went to the front desk to visit Miss Hilda and show her a picture of Jeremy. Miss Hilda was tickled and said, “You guys look like you belong together!” in her Miss Hilda way. (You’d have to know her to understand what I mean by this, but I can seriously hear her voice in my head). I went downstairs and visited with Nancy and Rebecca for about 10 minutes and then was planning to leave, but Bettye was there when I went on my way back upstairs, so I ended up chatting with her for a good hour. I tried to stop by Waffle House to see one of my former Young Women, but she wasn’t working that shift. I was kind of sad about that – I’d hoped to catch her and say hello. And then I got gas so that the car was ready to go for Thursday (and also because the light was on, and let’s face it… running out of gas is one experience I can live without…). So it was back to my dad’s where he and Jeremy had been working very hard all day. They were dirty and smelly. And it’s a good thing dinner was just leftovers! I didn’t feel like cooking. It was another lovely night of visiting and laughing. This may have been the night my dad told me and Jeremy about the doctor that drew a smiley face on his ankle. That still makes me laugh. Oh man. I laughed sooo hard. Classic. It’s fun to sit around and tell stories. It’s easily one of my favorite things about being with old friends or family. The memories. And it’s part of what I love so much about making new memories – like with Jeremy. I know there will be a day years from now when we reminisce about these times. And laugh :).

Wednesday was similar to Tuesday in that Jeremy and my dad were working on projects at the house. Oh, I should also mention that Jeremy made breakfast (oatmeal from scratch) pretty much every morning from Tuesday on. And okay, so he’ll probably gag with all the gushiness of this blog post, but seriously… It was just so joyful to see his smile first thing every morning ;). Anyway, I digress. So we ate breakfast and had morning prayer. And actually, we did kind of do some lolly-gagging ourselves before finally getting motivated to start the day. So he joined my dad outside and helped my dad get the weed whacker working. And I swept the floors inside and then met up at Italian Express with Kristin and Anne. Oh. My. Goodness. This was as fabulous as I remember. I even took a picture to help you see what I’ve been going on about:

Roast beef sub with gravy on the sandwich and on the side. For French fry dipping. And okay, so it’s like a heart attack waiting to happen. But man. It’s so good. I told Jeremy if I couldn’t finish it all (one of the “hazards” of losing weight is that your stomach shrinks), I’d bring home the leftovers so he could try this delicacy I’d been ranting about. No such luck. I wiped that plate clean. And I’m still not sorry ;). It was nice to spend an hour or so visiting with Kristin some more and with Anne. Anne who stopped in the middle of making her dressing to come and eat with us so she could see me :). Thank you Anne :). (For those who may not know, Anne was my very first supervisor. She was an awesome boss.) And if she reads my blog and says I can, I will post the picture of she and I. I forgot to ask beforehand.

So I drove some back roads back to my dad’s. And can I just say I started feeling really nostalgic. Seriously nostalgic. And that surprised me. I knew our time in Alabama was drawing to a close, and I was starting to feel the sadness of that eventuality. And that surprised me even more! I have missed the people I left behind ever since I left. But I had never missed the place. Especially not Dothan. But this trip… This trip made me realize that I do miss Dothan. It really is a simpler way of life in lot of ways. One day, as Jeremy and I were relaxing at the house, he said to me, “I can’t believe how quiet it is here.” And my dad doesn’t live out in the country. He lives in the middle of the city. And yeah, every once in a while, we’d hear a siren going by (because there’s a main street about a block away from his house). But other than that… It was quiet. In all the years I’d lived there, I’d never noticed that before. No dogs were barking. No kids (or others) were yelling, screaming, airing their dirty laundry outside the house as they are walking down the street (ummm… that’s a frequent occurrence at my current residence). Not a lot of traffic was constantly driving by the house (also a frequent occurrence where I live now). It was quiet and peaceful. And Jeremy thanked me so many times for this wonderful relaxing vacation. And I was so glad I could give it to him :). I still am.

Anyway, so there’s my nostalgia. It’s weird. I still sort of feel it. And I never ever ever thought I would.

I spent the rest of the day talking with my friend Karen on the phone and making the fruit salad to take for Thanksgiving. And getting a shower and starting dinner. Because I was of no use outside with the men. We laughed some more at dinner. Mostly about Jeremy’s ability to eat a lot of food. My dad joked with him and told him it’d be a sad day for him when there were no “seconds.” We made a valiant effort to go to sleep early, since the day would start early enough the next day (2.5 hour drive one-way for Thanksgiving), but truthfully… Jeremy and I enjoyed the time to spend together and talk for hours about nothing and everything. So we took advantage of it :). And paid the price later…

Because it was a long drive on Thanksgiving. And I did the driving. Jeremy got a few light snoozes in in the back. He missed most of the 20-something cotton fields we passed, but was able to snap a picture for his parents to see. We arrived and I started helping with the bird. My cousin Greg and his wife Jenny and their daughter Jaina were all there. It was really good to see them again. It’d been over 4 years since I’d last seen them. Possibly as many as 6 or 7! Jeremy and I took a walk through the woods a bit later where I got a tick on my pants. Yuck! Then we played croquet – me, Jeremy, and my dad. My dad won. But we had a lot of fun! And I was really tired, so I took a very quick nap and then dinner was ready. The food was wonderful. Well, except none of us was a fan of the blue cheese-stuffed olives… Between the amount Jeremy eats and the 4 pounds of salt my dad put on his food, we certainly had a few laughs during dinner-time ;). I didn’t actually take any pictures there (shame on me!), but we had an enjoyable time. But most good things must come to an end eventually, and this was no exception. We had a drive ahead of us and Jeremy and I had a day full of travel to look forward to (read: dread) the following day. So we packed into car and I drove home. The drive home actually seemed to go by faster than the drive to Georgia. Which was a good thing. Because I was tired. And actually quite emotional. I really was dreading leaving. The vacation had been so wonderful. The visit with my dad had been priceless and precious. I didn’t want it to end. (And okay Dad, you don’t know this, but I cried a lot at the prospect of leaving… And I will always treasure this trip. Thank you, Dad, for one of the best weeks ever and for some of the sweetest memories that were made and will forever be treasured :). I love you.)

And as it always does, morning came. And though it’s not a bad thing for morning to come, this time I just wanted to hold on a little tighter to the wonderfulness I’d had. Yes, that’s slightly pessimistic. And so I had to tell myself not to cry because it was over, but to smile because it happened. So we got up early to drive to Montgomery. Yep, more driving! Me again, and I was still tired. Let’s just say I’ve had better driving moments… But we made it alive to IHOP in the ghetto where we met up with Julia-Ann! It was good to visit with her, though it was very brief. And here are a couple pictures from that. It’s always so nice when friends take time out of their busy lives to see you, even if it can only be for a brief time. And though we had plenty of time, we had nothing else to do once we were done eating, so we headed to the airport. My dad stayed with us for a little while. We took a couple pictures (seen below). But then he left. And I cried some more. And truth be told, just sitting here remembering it, I’m kind of tearing up again. Phew… I’m far too sappy at the moment.

I love my dad.

So one good thing about Montgomery airport (which was a box on Jeremy’s airport diagram… ;)) is that they didn’t have those ridiculous full-body scanners. We got through security quickly enough and sat at our gate for a little while before boarding. We didn’t do anything but try to sleep on the way back to Washington. And unfortunately it was a 4-hour layover in Atlanta (gross). We did play Phase 10 there. And then a hideously never-ending flight to Seattle (and I slept for over half of it and it was still way too long). And don’t you love drooling in your sleep on planes? Haha… So attractive. Jeremy’s poor sweater was the recipient of my drool. Sorry Jeremy. So we landed in Seattle at about 9 local time. We walked to the light rail (it was very cold, by the way). We relaxed on the light rail for our 40 minute trip. Then we walked to the ferry terminal, bought our tickets and waited for the 10:30 ferry. Much thanks, once again, to my mom, for picking us up at the ferry and bringing us to Jeremy’s car (which was waiting patiently for us at my grandmother’s house). And since Jeremy and I hadn’t eaten all day – and though we were tired, we decided to end our vacation with a midnight meal of grilled cheese and tomato soup.

And so then it was back to reality. Life returns to normal. You try to catch up on your sleep. You try not to miss vacation too terribly much. And you work to find joy in the hum-drum of daily life ;). And it’s there. It’s just a little less obvious. But life goes on. You make even more memories of Mongolian grill food, a Christmas tree that Jeremy cuts down off his parents’ property (thanks for letting me have a tree!), and the simple joy of sitting together, enjoying the glow of the Christmas Tree lights. Yep. Vacation was wonderful. And I wish it could be that way every day. But then that would be life – and not vacation, right ;)?
So I’m thankful for the beautiful moments we are given to cherish and hold dear as we plug away at life. What a blessing this Alabama trip was for us. What a joy. I’m ever so grateful to all who made it such a wonderful experience for both me and Jeremy. :)

To Tide You Over

2011-12-18T14:52:00.003-08:00

In case you have been waiting in suspense for a blog post from me.... I do have one in the works. And it will be full of info and pictures about the fabulous Alabama trip. And I do mean fabulous. (Minus the heat, humidity, and gnats which were... hideously... present in mid-November...).

But let this put a smile on your face while you wait for all the fun details :). (Though I'm sure it won't put as big a smile on your face as it will on mine... ;)). Ah... Sweet love :).
And thank you Stacy... A million times over.

It's Gonna Be a Good Good Life

2011-11-14T18:46:00.008-08:00

Yeah, I’ve really been slacking on my blog. I know, I know. Life has been busy, and I haven’t had internet access. I pretty much changed my plan of going to my mom’s to do laundry. The reason is because that is a lengthy process. And so the Laundromat is so much faster. Thus, that is my new plan. And I don’t know if they have wi-fi at the Laundromat. I guess I could find out.

And so I have a long list of catch-ups. And several pictures. Some of which are food :). And since it has been so long, I can mostly just give a brief sentence in most cases. So here goes a Nilla month in review.

I dressed up 80s for Halloween. Yes, I went to work in jelly shoes, a jean skirt and jacket, leggings and leg warmers (which was handy, since the weather here has been so cold! We’ve already had ice 3 days that I know of). And I crimped my hair right after I got to work. Two other ladies in my office also dressed up. I work pretty closely with them, since we are all at the front. It was fun to be dressed up and do something different on a work day :).

I have been steadily working on my little house. And I’ve enjoyed plenty of fun little experiences even within this first month. Feel free to peruse the pictures below which will show how much I have done so far. The bedroom remains a work in progress, but it will get there. I don’t have a real bed right now, so I don’t feel especially hurried as far as getting it squared away. Thus it is a last priority. I have quit sleeping on the couch. I did that for 3 weeks, and apparently that’s my body’s limit. I have entered the age of back aches and that was not fun. I felt like a really old lady when I’d sit at work and lean forward to answer the phone and have to cringe from the pain in my lower back. So I inflated my self-inflating air mattress, and it’s been much more tolerable ever since :). Of course, the other sad fact that comes from all this is that I know there was a time when it didn’t matter where I slept – it didn’t affect my back. Consider those kids who fall asleep with their head hanging all over the place in their car seat. They bounce back as though nothing happened. Not so for me. And I guess 31 is when things start really falling apart ;). Because somewhere in the last month, I turned 31. This past year went fast and was jam-packed with life-changing events! Like getting my own place…

…And like Jeremy. Yep, we are still dating :). And here’s a few pictures to show you the smiles :). We’ve been dating 6 months now. Somehow that doesn’t seem possible – in both ways. The fact that it’s been 6 months when it seems to have gone by so fast; and the fact that it’s only been six months when sometimes it seems like we’ve known each other for much longer. It’s been pretty amazing. He’s smart and handy (he replaced my radiator a few weeks back) and wonderful and fun and handsome… :). And I’m sure, if he ever gets around to reading this post, he’ll be most appreciative of that little list of some of his many great qualities :). I’m one blessed gal. And believe it or not, the time is quickly approaching when we will be jetting to Alabama. Let the fun begin! That’s this Friday, by the way. Yep, time flies. And so lately, he and I have enjoyed relaxing quiet evenings at my house where we study scriptures, have Family Home Evening, drink hot chocolate, he hangs my pet net (for my stuffed animals), I unpack and put stuff away, and we cook and eat dinner together. We have cooked and eaten taco salad, home-made pizza (see the mountainous pictures below), and we had our Chinese night with orange chicken, cabbage ramen salad, and Sweet and Spicy green beans. So much fun! Unless you do something dumb. See below. And on other nights, I have cooked and he has joined me. I love it. I love cooking and sharing meals together. It suits me :).

Please note we are not drinking hot chocolate in this particular picture... That's honeycrisp apple cider ;). Warmed up.

Ah, here's the food :).

Chinese food night.

Awesome Nilla moments you can laugh at:

-I learned why the recipe on the Hershey’s Cocoa container for home-made hot chocolate warns Do Not Boil! Here’s what happens if you happen to leave the milk heating on slightly too-high of heat and then walk away from it: at first, nothing. You sit there sipping your hot chocolate and feel pretty cozy and happy. And then Jeremy will look in the bottom of his jack-o-lantern mug (which for some inexplicable reason you couldn’t seem to pass up last year when they were on clearance at World Market – even though you already had a MILLION mugs…) and notice that his hot chocolate is starting to become quite pudding-like in consistency. And you say, “Well mine is okay.” But alas, that is only because you haven’t gotten to the point where yours has cooled enough to do the same thing. And now you see the texture and taste the bitterness of it, and it’s pretty grueling to finish off your mug of cocoa and it’s even worse to think about having to drink the rest of what’s still on the stove tomorrow morning on the way to work… But then you have a sweet Jeremy who “takes one for the team” and finishes off the other stuff so you won’t have to and so it’s not wasted. And you understand now why you don’t let the milk boil. Because that was easily the most disappointing hot chocolate experience of my life. And I had been seriously looking forward to that hot chocolate!

-When you put more coolant into your radiator reservoir, make sure you replace the cap. It’s just a good thing to do this. Otherwise, you’ll be driving around to the Laundromat and to pick up Jeremy and go to the store to do some shopping together and you’ll notice that your car is over-heating and you’ll think, “But I just filled it up this morning! Why is it over-heating!?!” (I used to fill it up daily because the radiator was leaking as well as wherever else along the line it is leaking into the head gasket – yes, I know what this eventually means, but I’ll drive it til it dies – but since Jeremy replaced the radiator, I only refill about once a week… And usually these aren’t the results, since I usually remember to replace the cap…). And then, the next morning, you’ll have had the thought come to your mind that maybe you hadn’t replaced the cap, so you’ll check it and sure enough… Ugh. I hate when I do stupid things. Thankfully there is a car part store a block from my new home…

-When you turn on the wrong burner to heat up the sauce for orange chicken. And the only reason it’s discovered that you turned on the wrong burner is because Jeremy is in charge of browning the chicken and he has his assembly line going with the raw chicken waiting to be floured and egg-dipped on your plastic cutting board which is sitting on the stove. On the burner you turned on. And suddenly you smell the plastic melting (or rather he does, because you’re busy making the dressing for the cabbage salad). And now you’ll always know which side is up on the cutting board, since the other side has the eye of the burner etched forever into it :). Yep, good times! Burning plastic stinks, by the way.

-Always keep the genius statements coming. A la “It’s only fun when it’s fun” (which I’m considering hanging my banner behind my door at the entrance to the house. It sets the mood ;)). My newest one was uttered to Jeremy the night we made taco salad. We had bought two cans of black olives – two different sizes. We decided to only use one can, so Jeremy said, “Do you want to keep the extra can here or do you want me to take it home?” And I said, “It doesn’t matter to me. If it stays here, it will just sit there until it gets used.” Hahahahah. Genius. You can call me Princess Obvious :).

So in all my unpacking (yes, I somehow segued back to my house stuff…), I discovered that I have a million kajillion books. I got rid of about a box full, since I am positive I won’t be reading them anytime soon – if ever. And if I decide I want to, then there’s something called a library. Go figure! I also got rid of about 6 boxes of other stuff. It’s amazing what I’ve been holding onto for so many years. I do have to share this little tidbit. I came across a thing I filled out in 4^th grade called an “interest-alyzer.” That thing was full of little gems, let me tell you! One of the questions was, “If you were involved in a play, what role would you want to have (ie scenery, actor/actress, sewing costumes, etc). My number 1 choice was actor or actress. Hahaha! So not me! I have no desire to be front and center! But that wasn’t the best part. The best part was the question about if I could have a famous person come visit my school, who would my top three choices be? I will give them to you in reverse order, because my number one is the most hysterical ever. Number 3 was Rod Stewart. Okay, laugh, because I am. And yeah, I do think that’s pretty funny. But I can actually excuse it, because during that time in my life, he had a song called Forever Young that I really loved. So, okay, I can logically understand that. My number 2 was Debbie Gibson. Also understandable for me. I still have her CD that came out around that time (her 2^nd one, not her first one – it was one of my first CDs ever). But, drum roll please… My number 1: Jane Fonda. Yes, blink and re-read and it will say what you thought you saw the first time. Jane Fonda!?!? For all my life I cannot imagine why I would list her as someone I would want to have come to my school. Not now as an adult, and especially not then as a 10 year old! That one still baffles me. Oh, I laughed so hard when I saw it. I laughed so hard. I have to share that here, because it will be worth remembering one day, I’m sure. Cracks me up. Oh yeah, so I started this paragraph to say that I bought myself a tall bookshelf. And Jeremy quite kindly put it together for me :). I told you he’s handy and nice. And what would have taken me 3 hours took him less than one. But I put together my lamp that Lea got me as a house-warming gift. It’s a lamp I wanted to buy about a year ago when it was on sale at Target, but they didn’t have the wood one, and I didn’t want the black one. So now I have my functional lamp (it has shelves :)). You can examine all these things in my pictures :). And so Lea and I hung out Tuesday night so I could get the book shelf and she could get the lamp. We went to Target and the mall and we had fun laughing about nothing. I stayed and hung out at her house for a bit afterwards and met their new dog Petie.

See the bedroom still needs the most work. But the stuffed animals are in their spot :).
Well, I’m sure there is more that has happened. But that’s the gist of it. The high-lights. I mean, it’s life. There have been some really yucky days. There have been some really awesome days. And there have been plenty of in-between days. It’s just life. And I’m just rolling with it. Because it’s gonna be a good, good life :). It already is.

Movin' on [Out]

2011-10-14T10:09:00.005-07:00

Well, in spite of two attempts to upload this picture the right direction, I am giving up in the interest of time. I don't have time to waste ;). I'm doing a quick blog while I do laundry at my mom's house.

So I have been in my new home for a week now. (Hence my song title post.) I love it :). On Friday night, I opened a bunch of boxes -- some of which hadn't been opened in 7 years. I haven't gotten to any of the not-opened-for-8-years boxes yet. But that will come. Preferably once I have all my furniture in, since I know those boxes generally contain a lot of little ceramics that I used to collect and I will need my pretty curio cabinet for that :). So amongst my stuff, I found several pages of old magazines. Like 1980s old. See, back in the day, Donna had brought her old Southern Living magazines to work. They were from the 80s. So they had all these awesomely awesome 80s ads for 80s toys, etc. Way too radically awesome for this 80s-loving Nilla Wafer! So in addition to tearing out several recipes to try, I also tore out 80s ads ;). So I came across those, and decided there was no point in toting around such things for the rest of my life, but I still wanted to memorialize them, because I do love the 80s. And so I followed an idea I got from my dear Alabama friends Stacy and Becky: You just take pictures! And oila! Several sheets of paper become one digital picture that you can zoom in on and view :). Coolness. So take a peek and see if you are flashed-back to your awesomely 80s childhood :). I know I was! (But I don't recall that owning a She-Ra doll put wings on my imagination... That made me laugh!).
So my first order of business was to take a self-portrait. Because I do that, you know. I haven't done it as much lately. But this new place was a good opportunity :). So here I am on my $38 couch (I'm telling you -- I cleaned that thing up -- unstuffed all the batting and washed it in pillowcases, washed the covers of the cushions, febreezed it...) and that was $38 well spent! Currently it serves as my bed as well as my couch. I have my air mattress, but my bedroom is full of boxes (as you will see shortly), so I haven't bothered with the air mattress yet. Oh, and notice my UA quilt. And my pillow I got for my 30th birthday from Donna last year. (Holy cow! I'm going to be 31 in like 2 weeks!). Anyway, that UA quilt was a gift from Becky when I left Alabama 3 years ago. I have been waiting 3 years to use that :). Saving it for when I had my own place :). It's nice to have things that surround me that remind me of people near and dear to my heart. What treasures. Oh, and see the little pillow on the left with the two stuffed bears? I don't know (remember) the story behind the white bear, so I might get rid of that one. But the pillow and the other teddy bear are things my mom made for me. The bear I got when I was 11 and the pillow I was even younger. And just for the sake of recording the memories somewhere, I will do so here. The pillow was a Christmas present one year. And the only thing I remember is I was going downstairs one day and Brad and his friend Robert said, "Hila's coming!" They were talking to my mom. Well, she'd told them to be on the lookout for me, because she was working on it and didn't want me to see my Christmas present. She had already heard me coming, so she'd put it away. But I heard Brad and Robert say that and wanted to know why. I never got an answer, though. Until Christmas ;). And the bear? The bear's name is Lacy (I named it and still remember...). My mom had gone to Young Women Girls' Camp when I was 11. I wasn't old enough to go at that time. Part of what the leaders did was sew a bunch of those bears, because the theme was "Bear One Another's Burdens." So even though I didn't get to go, my mom made one for me and my sister. But anyway, there I am snuggled up on my new couch in my new home with a couple "new" things and some "old" things that bring back warm happy fuzzy thoughts :).
And this is looking from my front door to the back window. Now, in front of that window is a little round table and two chairs that Jeremy's mom is lending until... Jeremy and I enjoyed roast, mashed potatoes, tomatoes (trying to use my crop!) and biscuits at that table on Monday. My first home-cooked meal in my new home :). I love all the memories I'm making. And some that we're making.
Oh, another shot of my couch. In the living room. With some of the stuff I unpacked. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm going to move my couch and rearrange it. I'm thinking of putting it on the left there in front of that other window.
And this is the bedroom. Excuse the mess, of course. It doesn't look much better than this a week later. Except that all the boxes are now open ;). I love going through the clothes, because it's like I've gotten a whole new wardrobe! I'm also deciding to part with some stuff, and that's always a good thing.
And here's a sort of sideways look at my bathroom. Yep, it's pretty small and cozy. And the shower is definitely tiny. But it works. And it's mine :). That's the best part ;).
So other than spending my new week in my new home, life is otherwise the usual. I went with Jeremy and his family to their family get-together. It was quite a nice day both literally and figuratively. The weather turned out quite perfect (it's been pretty chilly here now).

FYI

2011-10-07T07:26:00.002-07:00

So I figure I should say that, since I will be moving out and into a place where I won't have internet, you probably can expect fewer blog posts. Not that I was writing a stellar amount anyway :). But I figured I would share that. I will be having home internet access only when I come over here (to my grandmother's), which I will do on Fridays to wash clothes and do bank stuff. Other than that, it's not a bill I'm willing to pay at this point :). So yep, today I start moving some things. And tonight will feel a bit like Christmas as I open up my boxes and ooh and aah over all the things I forgot I had ;). So exciting!